This week’s Time Capsule looks at a land deal, a dog pound, an asphalt explosion, a stolen car, pay phones and a toxic spill.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Dec. 18, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about E.G. Gilbert, one of Marietta’s most enterprising merchants and businessmen, purchased the entire building occupied by the Gem Theatre and the Haverty Furniture Co. for $20,000. The building, located opposite the courthouse on Washington Avenue, was built just two years earlier and was the property of J.M. Cogburn – who took as partial payment the vacant lot at the corner of Waddell Street and Washington Avenue and a brick warehouse on Waddell, while the balance was paid in cash.

A second story in that edition reported that a movement was started to relieve the distress among the un-employed and needy families in Marietta “by systematically bestowing groceries and coal during the holidays and extreme weather.” James E. Anderson, John M. Warren and Dr. J.D. Malone were being considered for the distribution committee. Henry A. Ward agreed to start the movement’s fund with $25 and was followed with $1 donations by four others.

Another story reported that Drs. W.H. Perkinson and I.L. Blair were appointed surgeons for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad Co. for Cobb County. The appointment was made by A.B. Bayless, the superintendent of the Railroad Company.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Dec. 13, 1964 paper it was reported that people were “barking” about the condition of the jointly operated city-county dog pound. Complaints had been registered about live animals being put in boxes with dead ones, about no one being on the premises to care for the animals and about the unpleasant odor around the pound.

A second story in that paper reported that only 46-percent of the 1964 City of Marietta taxes had been paid. A total of $367,363.59 had been collected, leaving $432,918.99 that still needed to be collected.

Starting on the front page of the Monday, Dec. 14, 1964 paper was the first of the “Witnesses to the Nativity,” a series of imaginative monologues by forerunners and witnesses to the birth of Jesus Christ. The holiday feature from the Los Angeles Times featured Isaiah the Prophet, Zacharias the Priest, Herod the King, Ezra the Trader, The Bethlehem Innkeeper, Simon the Stableboy, Gaius the Centurian, Simeon the Devout, A Bethlehem Shepherd and Balthasar the Wise Man.

Another story that day reported a 5,000-gallon asphalt storage tank blew up at the Cracker Asphalt Corp. plant in Douglasville injuring two workers. The explosion came when the men were transferring liquid asphalt from one tank to another. The cause of the blast was not immediately known. Fire units from Douglasville, Villa Rica, Austell and equipment from Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta were rushed to the scene.

Commissioner Herbert McCollum and members of the Cobb-Marietta Water Authority were charged in a lawsuit with “fraudulently” and “unlawfully” bypassing an apparent low bid for a million-dollar pipeline contract. A Pennsylvania construction firm, the L.B. Foster Co., contended in the suit that the water authority unlawfully awarded a contract the week before to two Marietta companies. Foster alleged that the advertisements for bids were part of a “fraudulent scheme” to deceive bidders. Members of the water authority knew “full well the contract would not be awarded to the lowest bidder,” the firm claimed. McCollum, who served as the chairman of the authority, said when served with the suit that there was “no truth whatsoever” to the allegations.

Marietta Mayor Howard Atherton‘s yellow Thunderbird was reported in the Thursday, Dec. 17, 1964 paper as having been stolen from behind City Hall after he had left his keys in his car. Ironically, during the theft, Mayor Atherton was speaking to a gathering of city employees about a new Zero Defects program and told them” what it [the program] amounts to is stop and think.”

Another story that day reported that the Cobb county Advisory Board on the advice of McCollum Airport Manager Joe Sandman had leased a section the county-owned airport for 20 years to a private operator. Sandman, who planned to quit his post at the end of the month to enter the real estate business, said he wanted to bind the incoming multiple-seat commission to a second private operator at McCollum to avoid any possibility of a “monopoly.”

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Dec. 12, 1994 MDJ it was reported that some residents and business owners in north Marietta believed that pay phones had become a public nuisance and magnets for the city’s growing crack cocaine trade. In November 1994, acting for a group of local homeowners, Marietta Mayor Ansley Meaders convinced Southern Bell officials to fix four outdoor phones at a Chevron station and convenience store on the southwest corner of Allgood Road and Fairground Street so they would not accept incoming calls. According to Marietta police, because of its bank of phones, the service station had emerged in the last year as a hot spot for crack sales in the city, joining such long standing trouble zones as Roosevelt Circle and Franklin Road.

The Air Force was reported in the Friday, Dec. 16, 1994 paper as saying an old spill of more than 1,000-gallons of a possibly cancer-causing agent by employees of Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. might have contaminated groundwater beneath Lockheed and Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta. Officials at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio said the contamination is believed to have been caused by a spill of tricholoroethylene (TCE). The chemical was used to degrease airplane surfaces and was “a suspected carcinogen.” While the spill was thought to have spread toward South Cobb Drive, there was no threat to the county water system.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at WWI, Lockheed, spankings, Newt Gingrich, the Cobb Galleria Centre and Marietta High School football.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Dec. 11, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about Mrs. Preston Rambo, who escaped from the clutches of a German warship during the European War, which we now refer to as World War I. The Marietta woman was sailing to New York from Rio de Janiero, Brazil on a British ship, but was quickly overtaken by a vessel called, Karlarhue.

Boarded by the German ship, its captain stated that it was his duty to sink the British ship but that he regretted doing it. The Germans then transferred all of the passengers, crew and pantry supplies to a small boat that was directed back to shore. Mrs. Rambo said that during the transfer she was forced to leave behind her trunks and a 500-pound bag of coffee that she intended for her sisters in Marietta.

A second story in that edition reported that the Mayor and City Council had ordered that no fire-crackers be sold or fired within Marietta that were larger than three inches long. They also ordered that no fire-crackers or fire-works of any kind were to be fired on the Marietta Square or any public street in the city limits between Dec. 23, 1914 and January 3, 1915.

50 years ago …

In the Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that the Lockheed-Georgia Company test flew a new airplane that could save shipwreck victims from the ocean or rescue men trapped thousands of miles behind enemy lines without ever having to land. The HC-130H Hercules was designed for the Air Force and NASA to recover astronauts and nose cones from test missiles. The recovery system consisted of a harness that would be strapped to a person or payload. The harness then would be attached to a stretchable, nylon cord and an inflatable balloon that would hoist the cord 500 feet into the air. On the front of the Hercules was a V-shaped yoke that could be extended to capture the cord and snatch the rescue subject from the ground or ocean’s surface.

Lockheed employees were reported in the Wednesday, Dec. 9, 1964 paper as having set a national record when a C-141 assembly department worker gave the 10,000th pint of blood that the company donated to the Red Cross for 1964. The Red Cross said that it was the first time in the U.S. that a company had donated that much blood in a 12-month period.

The Marietta Board of Education was reported in the Friday, Dec. 11, 1964 paper as having had high hopes that Marietta city officials would find a way to raise the money for an estimated $1.2 million school building expansion program. The expansion program was expected to include a new gym for the high school, a new elementary school, a new junior high school and either repair an existing wing or building a new wing at the high school.

Also that day it was reported that School Principal William Asbury Geer, who paddled failing students and made little boys carry dolls as a form of punishment, said that angry parents could not “run me off” the job. The fervor over Geer, the uncle of then-Lt. Gov. Peter Zack Geer, developed a week earlier when he paddled more than a dozen fifth grade students in front of their classmates because they made failing grades. Several parents protested the spankings and at least two had consulted attorneys over the matter.

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Dec. 5, 1994 MDJ it was reported that Cobb County’s Newt Gingrich, the mastermind behind a nationwide Republican sweep in the Nov. 8 elections, was nominated to the post of U.S. House Speaker. Although the Speaker election wasn’t until Jan. 4, 1995, Rep. Gingrich’s nomination by the Republican majority in the House virtually assured him of the post and would fulfill an ambition that he had harbored for more than 30 years.

A second story on the front page of that paper reported Rep. Gingrich as saying that the United Nations was a failed institution with “grotesque pretensions” and the United States should rethink its commitment to the world body. The harsh critique of the United Nations by Gingrich on NBC’s “Meet the Press” was seen as an indication of the rough road U.S.-U.N. relations would face under the new Republican leadership in Congress.

A third story in that paper reported a bizarre Marietta traffic accident that killed a Texas man. The man, who was trying to cross one side of Interstate 75 on foot, was struck by a van and flipped into the air over a concrete median wall. He was then hit a second time by a car traveling on that side of the highway.

The Cobb Galleria Centre was reported in the Thursday, Dec. 8, 1994 paper as having taken a monumental step toward replacing the business lost when Olympic organizers moved preliminary volleyball matches to Athens as the result of an anti-gay resolution adopted by the Cobb Commission. The 1996 World Showcase and Festival, an international cultural show that organizers said would compete with the Olympics, would replace the booking originally slated for Olympic volleyball.

In the Saturday, Dec. 10, 1994 paper it was reported that Marietta High School’s dream of its first state football championship in almost 30 years turned into a nightmare in a South Georgia town. After claiming nine consecutive victories on their way to the Class AAAA state semifinals, the Blue Devils ran out of gas against unbeaten Colquitt County. The Packers, which were 14-0, were the same team that knocked Marietta out of the 1991 semifinals. The day before, several hundred MHS students had lined up along Polk Street to give the team a rousing sendoff after students were let out of class at 11 a.m.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a train robber, moonshine, tobacco, a plane crash and an exploding manhole.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Dec. 4, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a front page story about Sheriff W.E. Swanson having arrested a black man who was suspected of killing and trying to burn the bodies of his wife and 10-month old baby. The bodies were said to have been saturated with kerosene oil, but “for some reason the ‘flames went out, and the house was not damaged, except for a hole burned in the floor.”

Also on the front page was the second guilty verdict against a bandit who boldly held up the Louisville and Nashville train in Marietta in January 1914, which appeared in my Jan. 23 column. The man, who was re-sentenced by Judge Henry L. Patterson to 20 years, had made an appeal for a new trial. The Court of Appeals ordered the case be retried, but Solicitor Clay was able to convince the jury again of the man’s guilt. According to various sources, Sheriff Swanson was also said to have gathered enough information on the man’s past that his record rivaled that of the Wild West outlaw Jesse James.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Nov. 29, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that a master plan had been approved for development of recreational facilities at Lake Acworth. The plan, according to Acworth Mayor and chairman of the Acworth Lake Authority Mary McCall, called for enlarging the beach facilities at the lake, construction of small, weekend-type cabins and possibly a golf course.

Also that day, Cobb County servicemen stationed in 10 different countries and three who were aboard Navy vessels were reported as being expected to receive records with recorded Christmas messages from their families through the Red Cross “Voices From Home” program. Forty-seven Cobb wives, parents, children and other relatives gave local and family news, sang Christmas carols and read holiday greetings on 37 free records that were made and sent by the families.

A petite, 95-pound Marietta woman was reported in the Tuesday, Dec. 1, 1964 paper as having shot a 105-pound deer while hunting with her son over the weekend. Mrs. E.A. Bachman shot and killed a six-point buck by herself in the woods. She told the Journal how she dragged the animal for about half a mile to a dirt road before three male hunters came along and helped her get it back to her car.

A court fight seeking to force a liquor referendum in Cobb County was reported in the Wednesday, Dec. 2, 1964 paper as receiving a final defeat. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s decision backing Cobb Ordinary Garvis Sams in the cancellation of a county-wide liquor vote. Marietta businessman Duke Fernandez, who brought the court action, was quoted as saying he was not sure if he would attempt to pursue making Cobb a wet county again.

An, speaking of booze, the odor of moonshine was reported as still lingering behind the jail in the Thursday, Dec. 3, 1964 paper after the Cobb County Sheriff’s Department poured out 906 gallons of confiscated, non-tax paid whiskey. Deputy Sheriff Jesse Cooper said a one and a half ton truck, with the name of a local egg company on its side, was seen traveling south on U.S. 41. The truck, which was suspected because of the “way it was riding” was followed to Dobbins Air Force Base and stopped. The sheriff’s department, after taking the spirits and the driver to jail, learned that the truck did not even belong to the company whose name had been printed on the sides.

Marietta detectives were reported in the Friday, Dec. 4, 1964 paper as investigating the third in a string of thefts of trucks loaded with cigarettes and tobacco in less than two weeks. The losses of both the tobacco and vehicles were believed to total about $20,000. Officers reportedly were probing the possibility that “professional Black Market cigarette peddlers operating on a big scale” were responsible for the thefts.

20 years ago …

In the Monday, Nov. 20, 1994 paper it was reported that the pilot of a twin-engine Beechcraft plane, lost in heavy fog and unable to make an emergency landing at a Fulton County airport, died when he ran out of gas and crashed in an extreme south Cobb neighborhood. Fortunately, no one on the ground was injured when the plane came down between two houses and hit some wires just north of Charlie Brown Field, just west of the intersection of Hillcrest Drive and Fulton Lane near the Fulton County line. Capt. Sandy Goss of the Cobb County Fire Department was quoted saying that the pilot had radioed Charlie Brown at 6 p.m. to report being lost in the fog and unable to find the airport. He also reported that he had 10 to 15 minutes worth of fuel left. Airport officials tried to talk him down for about seven minutes before he reported that he had lost use of an engine.

An explosion caused by a volatile mixture of gasoline and methane gas was reported in the Wednesday, Nov. 30, 1994 paper as having blown a 100-pound manhole cover off a Marietta sewer drain, damaging up to 130-feet of asphalt and forcing city workers to shut down a section of Roswell Street for more than an hour.

Also that day, answering machine tapes that recorded several conversations between Fred Tokars and his mother in August 1994 were expected to be allowed as evidence in his death-penalty trial. Cobb Superior Court Judge Watson White ordered the tapes and a transcript of the recordings sealed until he decided whether they would be used as evidence. Tokars was accused of ordering the killing of his wife, Sara, in November 1992.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a train derailment, food poisoning, the Atherton Drug Store explosion and Lockheed.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Nov. 27, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a front page story that reported the death Maj. John A. Commerford, the custodian of the Marietta National Cemetery. The story stated that the 76-year-old Maj. Commerford had just walked home from church and stopped near his home to speak with one of his servants when he died from apoplexy.

The death of 60-year-old W.J. Phagan was also reported on the front page of that edition. Phagan, the grandfather of 13-year-old murder victim Mary Phagan of Marietta, had been ill for months and was said to have suffered from two recent attacks of diphtheria. The elder Phagan was buried in the same Marietta cemetery lot as his granddaughter.

The second page of that edition was a full page ad from McClure Ten Cent Co. in Marietta announcing toy sales for Christmas shopping. The ad stated that Santa Claus was expected to arrive at the store “direct from Toyland” at 10 a.m. the following day with souvenirs for all children. The store also advertised that a large doll and a go cart were to be given away free to any child 12 years old or under that guessed the number of beans in the store’s window.

50 years ago …

Sixteen loaded rail cars in a long southbound L&N freight train were reported in the Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1964 paper as having careened off the tracks near Smyrna and piled up in a twisted wreck. The cars – located near the middle of a 101-car freight train destined for Atlanta – derailed for unknown reasons as it was passing the Gilmore Road crossing near the Oakdale community, south of Smyrna. No one was injured, but cars were overturned and thrown at violent angles about 300 feet along the mainline. Cargoes of coal were thrown out and burying large sections of the tracks. Some of the cars were ripped open or contorted by the impact and appeared to be too damaged to save.

The following day, in the Wednesday, Nov. 25, 1964 paper, it was reported that a railroad policeman told residents that they could cart away the 800 tons of spilled coal once the wreckage was cleared from the tracks if they moved quickly. Several residents armed with baskets reportedly took advantage of the situation. An L&N spokesman in Atlanta told the paper that the scattered cargo would be picked up and hauled away by the company within the next few days.

Also in the Nov. 25 paper, it was reported that health officials had opened up an investigation into the Lemon Street School in Marietta to determine the cause of a wide-spread outbreak of food poisoning among students and teachers. About 220 students and several teachers had swarmed Kennestone Hospital complaining of stomach cramps and severe nausea. Four children were hospitalized, while the rest were treated and released. Authorities suspected that chicken salad sandwiches served at the school the day before might be the culprit for the illnesses.

Later that week, in the Friday, Nov. 27, 1964 paper, state health officials confirmed that spoiled, leftover chicken was the source of the food poisoning. Evidence showed that the government surplus chicken had gone bad after delivery to the school. How the chicken became tainted with a type of coccus bacteria was not known.

A $168,567 lawsuit was reported in the Thursday, Nov. 26, 1964 paper as having been filed against the Atlanta Gas Light Co. by Atherton Drug Co. of Marietta in connection with the 1963 Halloween night explosion which shattered the store and killed seven people. The drug firm alleged in the suit that the negligence of the gas company was the “direct” cause of the blast. It was stated in the suit that gas had escaped from a corroded line in front of the drug store and seeped into the basement where a spark from an air compressor detonated the fumes. For more on the explosion, check out my column from October of last year here.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, Nov. 22, 1994 paper it was reported that the British government got “political clearance” to order 30 C-130Js from Cobb-based Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co., but officials at the South Cobb Drive plant were awaiting “official word” before celebrating. During a summit meeting late the week before, French officials agreed with British Prime Minister John Major’s plan to buy the C-130Js from Lockheed instead of refurbishing the existing transport planes in the Royal Air Force. Despite reports in London newspapers, no “official word” had arrived at the Marietta plant from the British Ministry of Defense, the body that had the final word. The contract was valued at $1.56 billion.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at beer, the Medal of Heroism, a Senator’s rifle, vandalism and Kennesaw State University.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Nov. 20, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a front page story about D.A. Summerour, who was in charge of the livestock exhibits at the Macon State Fair, going to Savannah for the fair in that district. Summerour won the first prize in Macon for the best 10 ears of corn for the fourth consecutive time.

Also on the front page of that edition, it was reported that the “Corn Club boys and the Canning Club girls” held their first annual exhibit under the direction of J.E. Creel at the Marietta Courthouse.

A third story announced the cotton ginners report, which stated that 13,758 bales of cotton had been ginned in Cobb County Nov. 1. That was over 1,100 bales more than the 12,629 bales ginned before Nov. 1, 1913.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Nov. 15, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal reported on the “largest ‘planned community’ development scheme ever proposed in the Southeast – a $30 to $40 million project.” The community, revealed by a team of Atlanta and international businessmen, was to be built on 300 acres in the Vinings area. It was expected to contain homes costing between $40,000 and $50,000, deluxe apartments, a shopping center, an office building complex and recreational areas that included a par-three golf course, swimming pools and playgrounds.

Another story in that paper said that the Marietta City Council had enacted an ordinance which established strict new standards for licenses to sell beer within the city. The ordinance, which prohibited issuance of a license within 300-feet of a church, school or residential zoned property, was prompted by a then-pending federal suit that challenged the city’s licensing code.

Engineers were reported in the Monday, Nov. 16, 1964 paper as having recommended that the old, original classroom building at Marietta High School be torn down after an inspection revealed severe structural damage. A leaking roof, sagging floors and crumbling walls were cited as the reasons for the condemnation of the then 41-year-old building.

Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Vaughn W. Elsea of Marietta was reported in the Tuesday, Nov. 17, 1964 paper as having been awarded the Air Force’s Medal for Heroism. Master Sgt. Elsea received the medal for attempting to save others at personal risk after a Marine jet aircraft crashed into a residence in the Fair Oaks community on July 25, 1964 while attempting to land at Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta. More about the Fair Oaks 1964 Jet Crash, can be found here in my Aug. 6, 2014 column.

The Cobb County Chamber of Commerce was reported in the Wednesday, Nov. 18, 1964 paper as having given Sen. Richard B. Russell a rifle so he could “properly defend” himself during a deer hunt that he was scheduled to attend on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s ranch in Texas. The veteran Georgia lawmaker also received a bright orange hunting jacket with the explanation that “we don’t want anybody to make a mistake.”

Vandalism of two rooms in Cobb County’s Superior Court was reported in the Thursday, Nov. 19, 1964 paper. The vandal knocking down the American and Georgia flags and wrote “defiant slogans against justice on the walls.” Officers took a 16-year-old girl into custody in connection with the incident. The girl, reportedly angry because her brother had been sentenced to the state training school for boys, was charged with hiding in the courthouse until it was locked for the night and then damaging the courtrooms.

Also that day it was reported that Gov. Carl Sanders, who just passed away on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2014, broke ground on the new $2.3-million junior college, which would later become present day Kennesaw State University. Gov. Sanders said in a speech during the event that the junior college would serve in the future as one of Cobb County’s “highest examples of civic pride.” Construction of the eight-building complex was scheduled to begin in May 1965 and the first 1,200 students would enroll in the fall of 1966.

20 years ago …

In the Saturday, Nov. 19, 1994 MDJ, it was reported that a Marietta woman was strangled during an argument with her boyfriend over her pregnancy and that her body had been found in the back seat of his car after a 100-mph chase through two counties in Alabama. The woman, the mother of three-year-old twins and 6½ months pregnant with her third child, died of strangulation and multiple blunt-force trauma wounds, according to an autopsy performed in Mobile, Ala.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a shooting, Lockheed, an Acworth mayor, KSU, the Braves, Newt Gingrich and Fred Tokars.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Nov. 13, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about two men on the Atlanta electric car line having shot and killed each other in the car barn office on Church Street. Eye witnesses to the shooting said that it resulted from an argument over the European war, now known as World War I.

The two men had just finished their last runs and were sitting around the stove in the office. One of the men was writing out his report when the argument began. A minute later, the two men drew “.38-caliber Smith & Wesson special six shooters” that each of them carried and fatally shot one another.

Also on the front page, it was reported that R.H. Northcutt’s registered Jersey cow “Peach-Blossom,” which had won the championship at the Alabama State Fair, had won the same award at the State Fair in Macon. Everything exhibited by the Kennesaw Mountain Farm also won prizes.

Mr. Spicer of Illinois, who judged the cattle and hog competitions in Macon, came home with J.T. Anderson for the weekend and was said to have declared that he had not seen a farm in Georgia that equaled Anderson’s farm. Anderson had won several prizes on his Hereford cattle at the State Fair.

The entire second page of that edition was taken up with a list from Rev. G.W. Duval of all the hosts and delegates to the upcoming Methodist Conference taking place in Marietta.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Nov. 8, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that the Lockheed-Georgia Co. had launched a company-wide project named Campaign Zero Defect. The special project was held at the Marietta plant and attended by about 12,000 day-shift workers, Defense Department dignitaries and other guests. Portions of the program were beamed live via radio to Lockheed installations at Dawsonville; Atlanta; Charleston, S.C.; and Clarksburg, W.Va.

Also that day, the Lockheed Georgia Co. was reported as contributing $275,000 to the United Appeal, helping boost gifts from the five-county Atlanta Metropolitan Area to $3,804,493 or 85.7-percent of the goal.

It was reported in the Monday, Nov. 9, 1964 paper that Gordon Murray Combs died at Kennestone Hospital at the age of 78. Combs practiced law in Marietta for 30 years, was the assistant U.S. attorney from 1915-1922, the mayor of Acworth in 1926 and the U.S. Commissioner from 1926-1929.

Two other stories in that paper reported events that happened in the city of Smyrna. Burglars pried open a safe and stole over $1,000 from Sandy’s Drive-In restaurant on South Cobb Drive at Concord Road, and a fire destroyed an appliance repair shop near the Dickson Shopping Center.

In the Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1964 paper it was reported that groundbreaking ceremonies for Cobb County’s $2.35 million junior college in Kennesaw, now known as Kennesaw State University, were being planned for the following week with Gov. Carl Sanders delivering the principal address.

A second story in that paper announced that officials of the Milwaukee Braves said they would be in Atlanta within the next several days to sign a contract bringing the National League club to Atlanta for the 1966 baseball season. Thomas C. Reynolds, executive vice president of the Braves, said that he and William R. Bartholomay, chairman of the board, planned to sign a lease for Atlanta’s new $18 million stadium. Currently, the Atlanta Braves are leaving Atlanta for a new stadium in the Cumberland area of Cobb County that will be completed in 2017.

Australia was reported in the Thursday, Nov. 12, 1964 paper as wanting to buy a dozen C-130E planes from Lockheed-Georgia Co. Prime Minister Robert G. Menzies, in a statement on the government’s reassessment of defense needs in the Australian House of Representatives, revealed that “approval has been given to acquire 12 C-130E Aircraft.” The C-130E was manufactured at the Marietta plant and was a four-propjet transport in worldwide use by eight nations at the time and was also expected to go into service in New Zealand.

20 years ago …

With historic Republican gains in the House, east Cobb Rep. Newt Gingrich was reported in the Thursday, Nov. 10, 1994 paper as being in line to fulfill his longtime ambition of becoming Speaker of the House – the third Georgian to hold that office.

Saying that “His bed is made … so he’s going to have to lie in it,” a Cobb Superior Court judge ruled in the Friday, Nov. 11, 1994 paper that Fred Tokars would not receive public money to pay for defense expert witnesses and investigators. Tokars was facing charges of ordering the shotgun slaying of his wife, Sara Tokars, nearly two years earlier. His attorneys had asked the court to grant indigent status for their client, claiming that he was broke.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at WWI, Lockheed, septic tanks, voter turnout, Wheeler High School and the Christian Coalition.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Nov. 6, 1914 edition of The Marietta Journal and Courier there was a story about Turkey having joined the side of Germany and Austria in “the great European war,” what we know refer to as World War I. It was also reported that Italy and Greece were expected to join the side of the Allies. The German forces in Belgium that were believed to be trying to reach the seacoast in order to prepare for an attack on England had failed. Strong re-enforcements were being rushed to both sides in Belgium. The English battleship fleet was said to have been a strong factor in preventing the Germans from reaching the seacoast.

Also in that edition, half of the front page was taken up by a T.L. Wallace Clothing Co. ad announcing “Cold Wave Coming – Buy Your Overcoat Now.” The store was selling overcoats from $5 to $18.75 and sweaters from $1.35 to $5.

50 years ago …

A Marietta couple and an Acworth truck driver were reported killed in the Sunday, Nov. 1, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal after a head-on collision on the 4-Lane, now known as U.S. Highway 41, near White Circle.

Also that day, it was reported that Lockheed Aircraft Corp., together with its major subsidiaries, topped the nation’s defense contracts list during fiscal 1963 with awards totaling more than $1.5 billion. It marked the second year in a row that the firm had been the No. 1 defense contractor from a dollar volume standpoint.

Another story in that paper reported that overflowing septic tanks had become a major health hazard in Cobb County and threatened thousands of people. County health authorities claimed that with every rainstorm, leakage began in countless improperly-installed septic tanks and polluted pools formed on the lawns of homes. The conditions were threatening disease, making living uncomfortable and undermining property values in many residential areas, according to county public health engineer J.M. Womack.

In the Monday, Nov. 2, 1964 paper it was reported that 40,000 Cobb County residents were expected to vote on candidates ranging from the presidency of the United States to justices of the peace in Cobb County. A massive, record turnout was expected in Cobb and the nation in response to one of the bitterest presidential campaigns ever held.

The following day, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1964, reported that nearly 15,000 people completed voting by noon – a strong indication that predictions of a record turnout would come true. Lengthy lines began to gather as early as 5:30 a.m. at some sites.

Sen. Barry Goldwater was reported in the Wednesday, Nov. 4, 1964 paper as having scored a resounding victory in the historic Democratic stronghold of Cobb County as he led a Republican revolt across the Deep South. Sen. Goldwater’s lead over President Lyndon Johnson of more than 4,000 votes was insurmountable with 28 of the county’s 29 precincts counted. It was confounding to historians that traditionally Democratic Georgia went Republican to the presidential race for the first time and forever-Republican states like Maine and Vermont turned Democratic.

Bids were reported in the Friday, Nov. 6, 1964 paper as expected to open in a week for the construction of the modern Joseph Wheeler High School in east Cobb – one of two new Cobb County high schools. Architect Cleveland Call released the model drawing of the facility located on Holt Road across the street from East Cobb Junior High School. The building, 92,000 square feet, was to have room for 750 students, be an air-conditioned facility with nine classrooms, five business education rooms, four science rooms, two home economics areas, shops, a library, a cafeteria – kitchen, administrative offices and a complete gymnasium. Wheeler High and a second school in Smyrna were expected to be finished by the start of school in 1965.

20 years ago …

In the Saturday, Nov. 5, 1994 MDJ it was reported that not all Cobb churches were falling in line when it came to distributing a voter guide orchestrated by the Christian Coalition, according to a random survey conducted by the newspaper. Of the 15 Cobb churches contacted, at least four said they were not going to distribute the guide, four said that they were and the rest would not go on record. The coalition’s aim had been to distribute up to 1.5 million copies statewide.

One of the most vocal critics of the effort was the Rev. Scott May, pastor of St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta. Rev. May said he was aware of the controversy and wanted his church to stay out of partisan politics. He also was critical of the Coalition’s effort to mobilize an army of conservative Christian voters.

Cobb’s largest church, however, Roswell Street Baptist Church, was reported as giving out the guide after services earlier in the week. Rev. Dr. Nelson Price stated that Roswell Street Baptist did not endorse candidates or tell the congregation how to vote. He said that the guide was strictly an informational tool for church members.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at WWI, a bear, a gas leak, Lockheed, rapid transit, the Braves, a gold mine and the F-22.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Oct. 23, 1914 edition of the Marietta Journal and Courier, the front page had a story about the recent events of World War I in Europe. The Germans were reported as about to succeed in capturing everything there was in Belgium and preparing for an attack on England with a fleet of airships. The Allied troops, however, were reported as still pushing the Germans back in France.

Another story in that edition said that C.W. McClure, who had a store in Marietta, had sent the little black walnut bed that Mittle Bulloch used, when she was a child in Roswell, to Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Broadwell, the former mayor of Roswell, had owned the crib for some time and allowed McClure to have it because he had intended to send it as a birthday present to Roosevelt.

50 years ago …

The nocturnal ramblings of the large black bear that was first spotted in Kennesaw, and mentioned in last week’s column, was reported in the Sunday, Oct. 18, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal as being spotted again in the Allgood-Sandy Plains Road area. Cobb Police received five calls about the bear and were said to have seen the animal’s tracks and “fiery, ruby eyes” as they were dispatched to the scene to search for the bear.

Also that day, it was reported that a mother and daughter were discovered unconscious in their home on Acworth Due West Road from a gas leak in a heater.

In the Monday, Oct. 19, 1964 paper it was reported that the first Lockheed C-141 StarLifter reported for duty to the U.S. Air Force at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. The plane was flown from Marietta to the base near Oklahoma City and was officially accepted by Under Secretary of the Air Force Brockway McMillan. Aboard the plane on its flight of about two hours were company officials and a party of aviation writers from across the nation.

Maj. Gen. C.H. Torhune Jr., commander of the Aeronautical Systems Division at Tinker AFB turned over the StarLifter to McMillan in a special ceremony. McMillan then turned the plane over to Gen. Howell Estes, commander of the Military Air Transport Service. The event was hailed as a new era of American defense.

The Board of Directors of the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce was reported in the Wednesday, Oct. 21, 1964 paper as giving unanimous endorsement to the proposed rapid transit amendment to the state Constitution. The amendment was expected to appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot. Approval by the Chamber’s governing authority, considered a major breakthrough by proponents of the amendment, was given after the group heard former Gov. Ernest Vandiver label rapid transit as being “vital to the growth of the area.”

Another story in that edition announced that the Milwaukee Braves were moving to Atlanta. The Braves, which are slated to move from Atlanta to Cobb County in 2017, were reported as having their board of directors vote to ask permission from the National League to move from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1965. The Braves were the first major league club to transfer a franchise in the country when they moved from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953.

In the following day’s paper, Thursday, Oct. 22, 1964, it was reported that National League club owners were expected to brush aside sentiment, tradition and the misgivings of baseball Commissioner Ford Frick by giving the Milwaukee Braves official approval to transfer their franchise to Atlanta. It would mark the first time in 11 years of major league expansion and realignment that a transfer of a franchise would leave a city without a big league team and the majors would invade the Deep South. It also said that it would bring a sad ending to the “Miracle of Sudaville” – an eight-year period during which Milwaukee fans supported the Braves with “record attendance and unparalleled enthusiasm.”

Lockheed-Georgia Company revealed in the Friday, Oct. 23, 1964 paper that it had under study an all-passenger version of the CX-HLS transport which would seat some 700 passengers on multi-decks.

20 years ago …

In the Tuesday, Oct. 18, 1994 paper it was reported that Cobb commissioners were voting to rezone nearly 23 acres in west Cobb near the Paulding County line, a former gold mine site, as a subdivision. The property, owned by west Cobb resident George A. Wynne, was the site of a former early-1900s gold-mining operation and was believed to be not only a gold mine but a gold-stamp mill and cyanide plant. Wynne’s son, Carl A. Wynne, had proposed to build a 37-home subdivision with 1,500-square-foot homes starting at $110,000. A pit that was 20 feet across and 12 feet deep was the sole remains of the former gold-mining operation.

The No. 2 man in the Pentagon was reported in the Thursday, Oct. 20, 1994 paper as heaping praise upon the F-22 Advanced Tactical Fighter, some two months after he suggested delaying the $70 billion project, which had come under fire from lawmakers as being unnecessary in the post-Cold War era. Deputy Secretary of Defense John Deutch also left open the possibility of reviving the C-5 airlifter as a replacement for the trouble-plagued McDonnell Douglas C-17 cargo plane and lauded Lockheed’s early work on the first new C-130 cargo plane in more than 30 years.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at Marietta High School football, socks, Macy’s, a bear, Cobb’s junior college, Promina Health System and Fred Tokars.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Oct. 16, 1914 edition of the Marietta Journal and Courier, the front page was an ad from the T.L. Wallace Clothing Company in Marietta announcing a week long sale of Styleplus $17 all-wool or all-wool and silk suits.

On the second page, there was a story about Marietta High School having just finished organizing a football team. For the past month, applicants had been competing and practicing for membership on the team. The first game of the season was expected to be played on Oct. 23.

Another story on the second page reported that Ralph Northcutt of the Marietta Knitting Mill had just shipped a car load of 11,000 one-dozen pairs of socks to California. The company also announced that it was not able to fill an order from the U.S. Government because of their inability to secure black dye, which was made in Germany and was currently waging World War I in Europe.

50 years ago …

In the Sunday, Oct. 11, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal it was reported that Atlanta Federal Savings, Georgia’s largest savings and home financing institution, had announced plans to build a branch office in Mableton. A temporary office was to be opened in Hawthorne Plaza as a ground-breaking on the future site took place.

Also that day, the paper reported that the four-lane concrete and steel perimeter road bridge over the Chattahoochee River, completed in 1963, was to remain closed to traffic for another two months. Although the bridge had been paved and even had sidewalks, the Georgia Highway Department said it was not ready for traffic and would not open until the entire perimeter road, together with a cloverleaf, was opened from the Four-Lane (now known as U.S. Highway 41) to Fulton County, which was a distance of 34 miles.

A 450-acre tract of land in Cherokee County, just north of the Cobb County line, was reported in the Monday, Oct. 12, 1964 paper as having been sold to Byron Nichols of Detroit, the vice president of the Chrysler Corporation. But, Nichols squelched rumors that the land was being purchased by the auto company for construction of an assembly plant. Known as the “old Dean farm,” the land was located east of the Canton Highway and north of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad tracks.

A second story in that edition reported that officials of R.H. Macy and Company and Davison’s department store were to inspect the Marietta site purchased by Davison’s for the construction of a branch store. Jack L. Strauss, chairman of the board of the Macy’s department store chain, said that a Davison’s of Marietta was being planned for two or three years in the future.

Police in the Kennesaw and Acworth areas were reported in the Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1964 paper as on the lookout for a large wild black bear that was about six feet tall and weighed about 350 pounds. Three days later, in the Friday, Oct. 16, 1964 paper, the bear was reported still on the loose roaming now through the back yards of homes on Sandy Plains Road, seven miles north of Marietta.

Thirty-five U.S. Navy planes were flown from their home base in Key West, Fla., to Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta to escape from Hurricane Isbell, a storm with 80-mph winds gaining force as it beared down on the Florida coast. The storm was expected to skirt west of Key West and strike the island of Dry Tortugas.

Gov. Carl Sanders and more than 30 local dignitaries were reported in the Thursday, Oct. 15, 1964 paper as scheduled to break ground on Cobb County’s proposed new $2.3 million junior college in Kennesaw on Nov. 10. Sen. Ed Kendrick also revealed that the State Board of Regents had chosen Kennesaw Mountain College as the name for institution, which is now known as Kennesaw State University.

A second story that day reported that Marietta city officials discovered that while automation was quick it also made mistakes. Eight unhappy residents called the Board of Lights and Water to report their water being shut off. The IBM card index machine said that the residents had not paid their water bills in two months, but receipts from the residents showed otherwise.

20 years ago …

Fearing a costly legal battle, the Cobb Board of Education was reported in the Thursday, Oct. 13, 1994 paper as having voted to immediately pull down all banners from high school football and baseball stadiums. The board’s action came in response to the controversy that arose at Lassiter High School, when the east Cobb school’s principal, Fred Sanderson, refused to allow a church banner at their football stadium that stated – “Jesus is Lord.”

Also in that paper, it was reported that Promina Health System, which later became the current day WellStar Health System, was officially the then-largest health alliance in the state with more than 2,000 beds. Promina was formed by a merger of Northwest Health System Inc., Gwinnett Medical Center and Piedmont Hospital Inc. At the time, the second largest health alliance was the Emory University Hospital System with 1,187 beds. Promina’s coverage area was Cobb, Cherokee, DeKalb, Douglas, Fulton, Fayette, Gwinnett and Paulding counties.

The death penalty trial of Fred Tokars was reported in the Friday, Oct. 12, 1994 paper as likely being held in rural northwest Georgia after a Cobb judge gave preliminary approval to a plan by defense lawyers and prosecutors to hold the trial in Walker County.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

This week’s Time Capsule looks at a Confederate soldier, the Elizabeth community, the Marietta Country Club, Haiti and Joe Mack Wilson.

100 years ago …

In the Friday, Oct. 9, 1914 edition of the Marietta Journal and Courier, there was a story about Dr. W.H. Perkinson having recovered a bullet that was fired by a Union soldier on Nov. 29, 1864 at Knoxville, Tenn., from the right shoulder of Confederate soldier Anderson Reed, who was a private in Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army under Capt. Tom King of Roswell.

The bullet, which struck Reed when he was 22 years old, penetrated his right lung and lodged in his shoulder. Reed recovered from his wound enough to resume work as a farmer and got married. But, the wound didn’t heal well and impaired his health to the point that he eventually gave up farming.

Eight years before the article, Reed sought to have the bullet removed and an X-ray was taken. During the operation, surgeons could not find the bullet. Then, in 1914, an abscess formed on Reed’s abdomen and Dr. Perkinson discovered the missing bullet.

50 years ago …

An 88-year-old black woman was reported in the Sunday, Oct. 4, 1964 Marietta Daily Journal as having been rescued from her burning Acworth home just before dawn by a neighbor. Acworth Fire Chief J.C. Jolley said the fire in the four-room house was of an unknown origin.

Also that day it was reported that bad weather forced Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. to cancel his speech in Marietta at the Democratic Headquarters on Roswell Street.

Sheriff’s deputies were reported in the Monday, Oct. 5, 1964 paper as having arrested a husband and wife burglar team after a group of Smyrnans held the woman at gunpoint until police arrived. Deputies said that a group of residents on Pineland Circle in Smyrna became suspicious of a car that had been parked in the area and went to investigate after the car left in a hurry. Near where the car was parked, residents found a television set and then a woman hiding in the weeds.

A second story in that paper announced that Judge James T. Manning declared he had “grave doubts” as to the validity of a city charter for the community of Elizabeth – located between present day Kennestone Hospital and MUST Ministries’ Elizabeth Inn. Manning, however, gave the go-ahead for a referendum on the issue pending his final ruling.

Two days later, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1964, it was reported that the citizens of Elizabeth voted nearly three to one in favor of an updated 1885 city charter which they hoped would make their community a self-governing municipality. In a light turnout, Elizabeth residents voted 93 to 35 for ratifying the 79-year-old, never-used document. The results, however, were unofficial by court order until a decision was reached in the suit challenging the legality of the charter.

Another story that day reported that stockholders of the Marietta Country Club had approved a $176,300 capital improvement program, which included expansion of the club’s golf course from nine to 18 holes. The action was taken at the club’s annual stockholders’ meeting.

Two Cobb County convicts who fled in county trucks while working on a road detail in the Smyrna-Oakdale area were reported in the Friday, Oct. 9, 1964 paper as having been arrested by Atlanta police three hours after their escape. The men were hauling asphalt in the trucks when they fled and ditched the vehicles in Oakdale before crossing into Fulton County on foot.

20 years ago …

With votes on limiting the mission in Haiti expected in Congress, U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-east Cobb, was reported in the Monday, Oct. 3, 1994 paper as saying that the Clinton administration was “on the edge of disaster.” Administration officials countered by defending U.S. military actions in chaotic Haiti and denied that U.S. efforts to stop the violence pervading that country was leading to “mission creep,” but said U.S. forces would become “a little more aggressive.”

American military patrols were rolling through Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, the country’s capital, searching for weapons after seizing 1,000 weapons at a border outpost and hundreds more at a paramilitary training base. In another sign of change in Haiti, the voice of exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was heard on state radio for the first time in years. State media, which had banned his voice, was under the control of Haiti’s coup leaders until American troops had seized the installations.

In the Thursday, Oct. 6, 1994 paper it was reported that one of Cobb County’s most illustrious and best-loved politicians was affectionately remembered as an effective legislator, whose political wisdom and razor-sharp wit endeared him to many during the dedication of the Joe Mack Wilson Building at Kennesaw State College. Named for the former Cobb state representative and Democratic leader who died in 1993 while serving as the mayor of Marietta, the building housed the school’s performing arts theater, art gallery and a number of class and conference rooms.

A fundamentalist church and the Cobb school system were reported in the Saturday, Oct. 8, 1994 paper as headed for a legal collision course over whether a banner with the words “Jesus Is Lord” could be displayed in the Lassiter High School football stadium. The Rev. Bob Smith, pastor of the 101-member Open Door Fellowship Church on Holly Springs Road, told reporters in the church sanctuary that he would sue if the schools did not allow him to display the sign.

Damon Poirier is the Newsroom Administrator for the Marietta Daily Journal.

If you are interested in learning more about the stories that were presented in this week’s column, you can search the newspaper’s digitized microfilm archives online. NewsBank, which hosts the archives for the Marietta Daily Journal, charges a fee for retrieved articles and has various price packages available. If you have any trouble with your username, password or payment options, please contact NewsBank at mariettadaily@newsbank.com.

*We welcome your comments on the stories and issues of the day and seek to provide a forum for the community to voice opinions. All comments are subject to moderator approval before being made visible on the website but are not edited. The use of profanity, obscene and vulgar language, hate speech, and racial slurs is strictly prohibited. Advertisements, promotions, and spam will also be rejected. Please read our terms of service for full guides